Ben Nevis - April 2016

The temptation was to do the three peaks challenge, however it's not that I didn't like the idea of the challenge, but I didn't like the idea of climbing the most amazing mountains in the UK and not being able to see them. Knowing that you climb one in the middle of the night made no sense to me as the vista from being on the top and the sites you see along the way is one of the biggest reasons why I want to climb the three highest mountains in the UK. To stand on top of the country and see for as far as the eye can see and to look down on life below gives me a rush of excitement.

On mentioning the idea of this challenge to my older sister, Katy, she mentioned that she would love to do it too. There we were around Christmas dinner table planning our trip that was to take place in April 2016. We decided that not only would we aim to climb the highest mountain in the UK, but we would do it with my 9 month old niece, Katy's daughter, May strapped to our backs.
Fast forward to April 22nd 2016 and I'm sat in Bristol airport waiting for my flight to Inverness. My previous months challenges of healthy living had given me some hope that I was fit enough and my mental ability and drive to make it to the top gave me courage. The worry that the weather would change meaning we couldn't climb with May, and put ourselves in danger was the only factor threatening to put a stopper on our challenge. With the positive knowledge that if we were unable to climb we would still have a lovely weekend together made the risk all worth it.

I arrived half an hour before Katy and May from Gatwick giving me time to collect our hire car and meet them in arrivals. The journey from Inverness to Fort William was stunning. We followed Loch Ness as it wound between hills and through valleys, we passed remote outhouses and turnings towards the outer Hebrides. As the mountains git bigger and the snow on top got thicker we knew we were getting close and suddenly there it was. Looming above the landscape was a mountain, flat topped and covered in snow. What could we do but pull over and take a photograph. After the initial awe my thoughts were 'well that doesn't look too bad' knowing full well that the climb would be a different matter. The weather was looking good so all we could do was bunk down for the night and get ready for a day of climbing.

Saturday 24th April, Ben Nevis summit day.
We set off around 10am leaving the car in the visitors car park, and giving two fingers to the lady who worked in the visitor centre who told Katy she was basically being irresponsible taking May up. We felt far from being irresponsible. We had the gear, we told everyone where we were, times and what we were doing and we had all the previsions including a safety whistle and pork pie - it's not a day of walking without a pork pie!

Everything we had read had prepared us for the first hour and a hour steal climb up steps, over boulders and ascending thousands of feet and boy it was hard going, but we took our time and took in the beautiful surroundings that we found ourselves in. At the point where we started to think 'blimey this is going on for longer than we thought' the path starting to become more of a path and less of a boulder field that resembled a rock fall. And we were there, the halfway point. With May safely strapped to Katy's back, she'd slept for the whole way so far and had learnt Katy mountain respect for carrying another human being, give it a small one but still another life, up the mountain.

Past the loch we went and the path continued to climb with the steepness increasing once again. over the waterfall we went and the temperature dropped. Snow started to appear on either side of the track and we freaked for lunch giving us quite possibly the best al fresco spot for dinning.

At this point we'd seen people walking back down. There were mixed opinions from those who said the ice was impassable and others who said it was fine. We decided to keep going and to see what lay ahead of us. After a spot of lunch we cracked on. The snow got thicker and the path got narrower. At 4000ft high i looked to my right and there it was, the summit, the trig point, the top of the country.

After a further few hundred feet climb we'd made it. We were at the summit on the south side and lying between us and the trig point was a field of compressed ice and snow. Should we push it, or should we be sensible given it was -7degrees and we had a baby. instead we turned around and gave the 'V's' to cancer on top of the highest point on the country. At that very point May was the youngest point on top of the UK let alone on the mountain. The views were breathtaking. The knowledge we'd made it in 4 and a half hours was incredible and the feeling of being on top was unbeatable. I was full of pride and as we turned around to start our decent I literally felt on top on the world.

The climb down..... as we started Katy and I had raised spirits, we'd done it. We both said that surprisingly neither one of us had felt as though there had been a point on the ascent that made us feel like we could't do it and we started to get even more excited about the prospect of having a drink in the pub at the foot of the mountain. But boy we were in for some endurance. The first two thirds were welcome, but the boulder field was a different beast on the way down. Our knees ached, our ankles shook and our legs generally became incredibly tired. By the time we rounded the last corner and the roof of the pub was in sight we, and May were incredible thankful. May had slept for the majority of the climb but in the last half an hour was ready to stretch her legs and help us celebrate our successful climb.

After 7 and a half hours we'd made it. We were back at sea level and as only two true West Country girls would do we celebrated with a pint of cider.


 

Ben Nevis..... you beaut!!!!